Cullen: "We have to dust ourselves off"

The drive for five will have to wait

Leinster will have to drive for five another day after a crushing defeat in the Heineken Cup final in Newcastle on Saturday.

They were beaten 20-10 by Saracens at St James' Park, despite the majority of the first half going all their own way.

Tadhg Furlong had scored the games first try mid-way through the first half, converted by Johnny Sexton, after the outhalf had slotted an early penalty.

However some poor decisions led to a fightback, a Sean Maitland try over the 40 minute mark would put his side level at the break, thanks also to a conversion and penalty from Owen Farrell.

Leinster would not score again, Sarries though would land a killer blow with little to separate the sides, Billy Vunipola scoring a second try, with no way back for Leo Cullens side.

Leinster's impressive season now hinges on a Guinness PRO14 semi-final against Munster at the RDS.

Headcoach, Leo Cullen offered his reflections on the game.

"For us, I thought our guys fronted up unbelievably well, stuck in so many collisions, were dominant in a lot of collisions, particularly early in the game with some of those big men running at them. But it does take its toll for sure." Cullen said

“I thought the Saracens bench came on and did well. I thought Vincent Koch, in particular, provided a lot of energy considering he was on after 30 minutes.

"I thought he carried very, very strongly - Their scrum was good as well; they probably just had the upper hand on us in the last 20 minutes whereas probably in the first half I thought we had a little bit of dominance.

"We just need to dust ourselves off now.

"We’ll talk about so many different areas of the game but we need to just try and move on as quickly as possible because we have a huge game against Munster next Saturday.”